Aftab Poonawala's judicial custody extended by 14 days in Shraddha murder case

New Delhi, Jan 10: The judicial custody of Aftab Poonawala, the accused in the Shraddha Walker murder case, has been extended by 14 days by Delhi's Saket court on Tuesday.

The court, which said that Poonawala has requested some law books to study, directed the authorities to provide him with warm clothes.

The court had earlier allowed the the plea of Delhi Police seeking permission to obtain a voice sample of Poonawala on December 24 and stated that even though a fair trial is a right of an accused but at the same time, a fair investigation is required in the larger public interest.

"True, a fair trial is the right of the accused but it is also true that fair investigation is also required in the larger public interest as the offence cannot escape and crime cannot go unnoticed merely because the accused is not ready to aid in the investigation," Metropolitan Magistrate Vijayshree Rathore of Saket court. "Thus, the application moved by the Investigating Officer (IO) seeking permission for a voice sampling test of the accused is allowed," the court said.

Referring to the Supreme Court of India in 'Ritesh Sinha vs State UP', the court said that "judicial order compelling a person to give a sample of his voice is not violative of Fundamental Right to Privacy, under Article 20(3) of the Constitution of India". "It was further observed in the case that the Fundamental Right to Privacy cannot be construed as absolute and must bow down to compelling public interest," the court pointed out.

Background

Aftab and Shraddha met through a dating app Bumble in 2019 and later moved in together at a rented accommodation in Delhi's Chhattarpur area. Her parents were against the inter-faith relationship and had stopped talking to her after she decided to move to Delhi with him.

Poonawala allegedly strangled his live-in partner, Shraddha Walkar, and sawed her body into 35 pieces, which he kept in a 300-litre fridge for almost three weeks at his Mehrauli residence in South Delhi's Mehrauli, before dumping them across the city over several days in the dark of night.

Aftab was arrested on November 12 and sent to five-day police custody, which was further extended by five days on November 17. On November 22, he was sent to police custody for four days. The court on November 26, sent him to judicial custody for 13 days.

An FIR was registered against the attackers under Sections 186, 353, 147, 148 and 149 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at Prashant Vihar Police Station in connection with the case.